Car-starter



(No Model.)

A. R. WITMER.

GAR STARTER. No. 311,627. Patented Peb. 3, 1885.

UNITED STATES PATENT @Erica ABRAHAM R. IVITMER, OF SAFE HARBOR, PENNSYLVANIA.

CAR-STARTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 311,627, dated February 3, 1885.

Application filed December :2, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.:

Be it known that I, ABRAHAM It. WITMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Safe Harbor, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Car-Starters, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to car-starters, and is an improvement on the invention for which I obtained Letters Patent on December 7, 1880, which Letters Patent are numbered 235,324.

In the invention for which I obtained the said Letters Patent I accumulate and hold for future use the momentum of the car in such manner as to aid in starting said car or in assisting to ascend a grade. These results I accomplish as follows: Upon the middle part of each axle B is placed a loose sleeve, D, around which is coiled aspiral spring, E, the said sleeve preventing friction between the spiral spring E and the axle B when the said spring is put under tension. The ends of the spiral spring E are attached to clutch-collars F, placed loose upon the axle B, and the teeth of which, when the said clutch-collars are left free, are held in gear with the teeth of the clutch-eollars G, permanently attached to the end parts of the axle B, so that the two clutchcollars F and the spiral spring E will be carried around by and with the aXleBin its revo lution. Upon the clutch-collars G are placed clutch-collars H, which are permanently attached to a tubular case, I, and are thus rigidly connected together, so that when one of the clutch-collars H is in gear with one of the clutch-collars F the other clutch-collars II F must be out of gear. The clutch-collars F equal in thickness the combined thickness of the two concentric clutch-collars G H,\so that the clutch-collars F can gear with either of the said clutch-collars G H or with both at the same time. rlhe case I surrounds the spring E and the teeth of all the clutch-collars F G H. The manner of moving the case I from side to side is fully described in my patent herein mentioned.

The one objection to my said invention before quoted is the fact that the amount of strain or tension which can be put upon the spring E cannot be regulated, leaving` the spring constantly liable to undue strain. In this my present device I do away with the l said objectionable feature in the patent mentioned, by means of the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which is shown a new arrangement of the loose sleeve D.

In this specification and the drawing connected therewith the letters of reference are the same as those used in the original patent hereinbefore mentioned.

The sleeve is divided into two sections, D D, which are united or joinedin the center by means of arms r 1' projecting from the ends, the arms of one section iitting between those of the other, so that where they interlock they form a continuous sleeve about the axle, and where not fully interlocked the arms are sufficiently thick to prevent any friction between the axle B and spring E. At the outer end of section D the clutch-collar F is firmly attached to or integral with the said sleeve-section, while at the outer end of section D the clutch-collar F has a short sleeve, f, with a screw-thread cut around it and adapted to be received in and by the said sleeve-section D.

In operating this device the clutch-collarF is moved inward in precisely the same manner as in my first patent; but it carries with it the section of the sleeve to which it is attached, closing the arms of the one upon those of the other untilthey are completely interlocked, (it should be remarked that they are never entirely unlocked,) when the whole sleeve is moved toward the clutch-collar F', the screw-sleeve of which engages completel y with the main sleeve which locks the wheels. The screw is never entirely free from thesleeve, having a plain the car is movingin an opposite direction, the the said clntchesF F', the eiuich-vollars G,at r3 Whole action of the clutches, asjust. described, taehed to the axle B, the c1utch-c0llars H, ab-

is reversed. v taehed to the ease i, and the ease I and the What I Claim as my invention, and desire mechanism for moving it, substantially as 5 to secure by Letters Patent, is specified.

The sectional sleeve D D', having the clutch F integral with the section D7 and the clutch VVitinesses: F connected with it bymeans of a screw, the W. J. FORDREY,

spiral spring E, having its ends. attached to I XVM. R. GERHART.

A. R. VITMER. 

